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Conversation Corner: Goals and Priorities, 2018-2019

Our People

Build a strong collaborative team that is creative, forward thinking, solution-oriented and respectful of the individuality and diversity of its members.

Leadership Certificate and Capstone Programs

The NICC Leadership Certificate Program and NICC Leadership Capstone Program are year-long professional development trajectories offered by invitation to College employees who personify the NICC Mission Statement, exemplify its Core Values and are professionally situated so as to significantly contribute to the accomplishment of both short and long range organizational goals.

Each cohort-based program consists of a sequence of four interactive, discussion-based, instructor-led face-to-face sessions, and is designed to help participants familiarize themselves with and refine relevant leadership related competencies.

Certificate program participants navigate a sequence of four courses developed by globally recognized leadership consultancy Development Dimensions International. Courses covered include: The Essentials of Leadership, Leading Change, Delegating for Results and Resolving Conflict.

Capstone program participants work with models such as Situational Leadership® and the Johari Window, and tools including the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® Personality Assessment, Franklin-Covey® Productivity Pyramid & Time Matrix, and Lominger® Career Architect.

Employees who are interested in learning more about – and perhaps participating in a future cohort – are strongly encouraged to share this interest with their supervisor as well as Director of Organizational Development Seth Gilbert at gilbertse@nicc.edu.

– Seth Gilbert, Director of Organizational Development

Human Resources Training & Development Programs

Within the next few months Human Resources will launch the SafeColleges training to designate and assign mandatory training for all new hires and annual training for full and part time regular colleagues. We receive access to SafeColleges through our relationship with EMC Insurance where we purchase our workers compensation insurance. In addition to mandatory compliance and safety training, we are also able to offer a wide variety of developmental courses that are interactive and trackable.

Human Resources has also offered monthly training for supervisory colleagues since April 2018. More than 60 supervisors are invited and participation is generally around 75 percent. HR leads training about policy and procedure related to all aspects of employment at NICC, and also has a Q & A component so supervisors can ask questions and share experiences to assist each other.

Some topics of conversation this past year have covered legal (Family Medical Leave Act, Fair Labor Standards, etc.), technical (use of MyCampus, electronic forms), policy (Home Office Policy, FMLA, Return to Work, Disciplinary Action), and benefits (Employee Assistance Program, Wellness).

– Connie Kuennen, Executive Director of Human Resources

Our Finances

Establish risk-tolerant financial strategies that are resilient to market and economic tensions.

Continued pressure on enrollment levels and low enrolled classes, more part-time students, students wanting to receive education by different modes, businesses wanting different forms of cost-effective training, lower unemployment levels, blending of credit and non-credit classes, more collaboration with high schools, and the list goes on; the challenges, opportunities and needs we take into account as our budgets are being developed. Many of these are not new, but all need to be addressed.

We continue to focus on balancing our revenue sources to support balancing the budget. The four main sources are credit and non-credit tuition and fees, state investment and local support through tax levy. This year we are contemplating up to a $6 increase in resident and up to a $10 increase in non-resident tuition. The governor and legislature have indicated an intention to increase investment in the community colleges, but no decision has been made as to how much. Our tax base remains strong which allows us to accomplish things like building improvements, classroom upgrades, making our grounds more secure and increasing our efficiencies to lower operating costs.

Through our business planning process, we are assessing and prioritizing revenue strategies that support our strategic goals and have immediate and long term impact to the College. These strategies are designed to address many of the challenges and opportunities addressed above. These will become a part of our business plan, which we expect to be completed in May of this year. – Dave Dahms, Vice President of Finance and Administration

Board of Trustees News

The Board of Trustees will meet next Monday, March 18, at the Peosta campus. The meeting agenda and packet can be found in: My Campus > Board of Trustees Meeting Agenda and Enclosures or by accessing this link.

New SENSE Findings Available: Benchmark Scores for NICC Compared to Iowa Community Colleges

If you have input on a upcoming feature, Big Fish, something to celebrate or a suggestion, email us at news@nicc.edu!